An early-evening intimate choral music concert

French composer Maurice Durufle

Published:15:26Saturday 08 July 2017

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On July 15th at 5pm at St Clements Church (Old Town) the Hastings Philharmonic Choir and Chamber Choir will perform an early evening intimate choral music concert featuring Duruflé’s Requiem with solos by Lin Westcott and Marcio da Silva, and three motets by C.Monteverdi as a commemoration of the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth.

One motet by Brazilian Baroque composer Pe. José Mauricio Nunes Garcia and the very well known Ave Maria by F.Biebl will also be in the programme.

The concert will be accompanied by Richard Leach at the organ.

The Requiem Op. 9, by Maurice Duruflé was published in 1947 by the French music publisher Durand.

Commissioned in 1941 by the collaborationist Vichy regime,

Duruflé was still working on the piece at the time of the regime’s collapse in 1944, and completed it in 1947, dedicating it to the memory of his father.

​At the time of commission, Duruflé was working on an organ suite using themes from Gregorian chants.

He incorporated his sketches for that work into the Requiem, which uses numerous themes from the Gregorian “Mass for the Dead.”

Nearly all the thematic material in the work comes from chant.

José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767 – 1830) was a Brazilian classical composer, one of the greatest exponents of Classicism in the Americas. His musical style was strongly influenced by Viennese composers of the period, such as Mozart and Haydn.

A spokesperson said: “Invite your friends to an evening with tea/coffee, cakes and beautiful choral music. Please note that this concert will happen at St Clements Church and not at St John’s Church as previously advertised in the brochure.”

To find out more about the newest fully professional orchestra in the south east, visit www.hastingsphilharmonic.com